BIRDEV ISLARY Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Mr. S Bora, learned counsel for the petitioners. Also heard Mr. J Chutia, learned standing counsel, KAAC as well as Mr. BJ Talukdar, learned counsel for the Revenue Department and Ms. M Bhattacharjee, learned Additional Senior Government Advocate for the Forest Department.

(2.) The petitioners herein claim themselves to be persons belonging to the Schedule Tribe (for short ST) Community and are aggrieved by the common notice dated 29.05.2019, where even, the name of the authority issuing the notice is not being mentioned. The purport of the notice is that all the encroachers who had already encroached various land "from FD Pillar No.3 to 15 near Rillain villageDimapur & Tengnanglangso near Indisen Village Dimapur in & around FD Pillar No.16-17 (Inside Forest Land of Doldoli RF, Karbi Anglong, Assam), so-called & self styled villages i.e. Disapur village, Raikom Aklam, Tingbangla Nepali Bosti, Notun Basti near Nowgaon Bosti Rangapahar, (Hiteswar Tulsiary Gaon) Alias 10 th Miles Langtibuk Boro Gaon and Dhoneshnala-Tenganala-KochubeelKhoyabosti-Nahorlangso I & II", are required to vacate their respective lands under their occupation within a period of 7(seven) days from the issuance of the notice. The notice further provides that on the failure of the persons to vacate the lands, in question, they would be ejected as per the power under Section 72(c) of the Assam Forest Regulation 1891(for short, Regulation of 1891). The notice states that the unlawful occupation of the forest land by the petitioners is a gross violation of Section 24 and Section 25 of the Regulation of 1891 and Section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.

(3.) The petitioners claim that as they belong to the ST community, therefore, they have a right under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (for short, Act of 2006) to occupy the forest land in question.